Remote Single User Mode.

[Olaf Hoyer]

On Sat, 10 Apr 2004, Grant Peel wrote:

> Happy Easter all!
>
> Here is an off-the-wall question....
>
> I have 4 servers in Toronto (I live in London, about 120 miles south). Most admin I can do remotely of course, but I was wondering, if there exists a software/hardware solution that might actually allow one to reboot any one of the machines remotely and alllow access in single user mode. Obviously, that machine would not be accessable via the normal netwrk method, but again, is there a KVM - software that would allow local access in single user mode VIA a network connection to one of the other servers, or the KVM directly?

Hi!

Well, as long as you can set up a serial console to them (whether in
software, like described in the handbook, or via hardware BIOS
redirection like Dell, HP and so on), then you could simply buy a remote
console switch off-the-rack, and be happy.

I worked a lot with the cyclades-TS series, you simply connect via ssh
to them (they run embedded linux), and they forward this connection to
the specific serial port. The also do other nifty things, you can have
the console output of the servers logged via nfs to a remote machine
etc.

www.cyclades.com, they are not cheap, but are working well (once you got
he right firmware, I'd go for 1.3.9 at the time of this writing, the
1.3.10 has other hitches I dislike)


HTH
Olaf




-- 
Olaf Hoyer        ohoyer at gaff.hhhr.ision.net
Fuerchterliche Erlebniss geben zu raten,
ob der, welcher sie erlebt, nicht etwas Fuerchterliches ist.
(Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Boese)